The K20D has a great viewfinder as far as crop sensor DSLR's go. What lens was on the D300 when you tried it? A faster lens will brighten it up for sure. While great little lenses, the DA limiteds aren't that fast. Do you have a 1.4 lens?

I'm not sure if the focusing screen can make it brighter, but I have heard that split screens throw off the metering and focusing in the camera.

-Brian

The metering might be affected, I'm gonna do some tests when I get mine. I wonder though if those people that conducted tests with the split screen covered their viewfinders, it can really throw off the metering if the viewfinder isn't covered.

About the focusing, from what I've read it doesn't affect it at all since the AF module is not behind the focusing screen, which is good news.

You guys know if other focusing screens are brighter than the stock one?

So, can a focusing screen brighten my viewfinder?

SoccerJoe:

The split screens do not make the screen brighter, in my opinion. Katz Eyes have a optional feature called opti-bright, but that is really for dealing with the "black out" effect of lenses slower than f4 or so... the effect looks like half of the split focus circle goes dark.

I do not yet own a k20D, but my K10D is pretty bright for me, and I wear glasses. I have not looked through a modern canon or nikon ... if they're brighter ...man, all the power to them. I don't know how they can do it.

The split screens do not make the screen brighter, in my opinion. Katz Eyes have a optional feature called opti-bright, but that is really for dealing with the "black out" effect of lenses slower than f4 or so... the effect looks like half of the split focus circle goes dark.

I do not yet own a k20D, but my K10D is pretty bright for me, and I wear glasses. I have not looked through a modern canon or nikon ... if they're brighter ...man, all the power to them. I don't know how they can do it.

germar

Ah really? I had the impression that some screens were darker than others, due to the micro-prisms and the thickness. From what I've read, these micro-prisms help transmit more light.

I believe that the K10D and K20D use the same viewfinder and focusing screen.

I'm not knocking Pentax and I'm looking forward to when they improve their viewfinders.

Side note: you should have seen their faces when I pulled out my K20D with my DA LTD pancakes. "wow that's tiny!" -> "man this is well-made, all metal!" -> "man this is sharp!" -> "you've got all the gear you need in that bag?"

While the topic of the Web page is not directly related to viewfinder brightness, the authors make an interesting assertion. For the camera they tested, the viewfinder had the same brightness from for anything larger than f/4.

"...Even though the lens was stopped down a full three stops from f/1.4 to f/4.0, the screen brightness only changed slightly with a small visible difference only appearing after the change from f/2.8 to f/4.0. The background measurement changed from an average reading of 215 to 203 using Photoshop's picker. That works out to less than a third of a stop in brightness change when I compare it to a Stouffer 4110 transmissive step wedge image take with the C7070. A 1/3 step in the Stouffer image at an image value of around 215 shows up as a numerical value change of more than 15. Since most DSLRs meter from the focus screen, it is easy to see how using a fast lens can give exposure problems as well..."